From headquarters in Moscow, assignments for the film were sent to all parts of the Soviet Union. (…) Early in the morning of the thirteenth work was begun by 240 cameramen at 140 ‘filming points’ scattered throughout the Soviet Union. The first to begin was M. Glider, in the Far East. The morning of the thirteenth in Moscow, with which the picture opens, was filmed by F. Proporov. Lebedev succeded in taking shots from a tank turret, during a battle on the North-western Front. Bunimovič filmed the repulse of a German tank attack on the South-western Front. M. Ošurkov filmed a submarine cruise in the Barents Sea. Also noteworthy was the work of S. Fomin, who recorded an artillery bombardment of Leningrad, and D. Rymarev’s and B. Mikoša’s Sevastopol scenes, in the taking of which Mikoša was wounded.

Mihajl Sluckij in Jay Leyda, Kino, Allen & Unwin, 1960